io8 FORESTS AND MANKIND 



State forestry has gone forward until today all but a few of 

 our forested states have provided for forestry departments. Fed- 

 eral forestry has been stimulated by the passage of laws pro- 

 viding for the purchase of deforested lands, for fire protection 

 and for scientific study of our timber species. Private owners of 

 timberland, here and there, are testing out the possibilities of 

 applying forest management to their own lands. Education 

 and demonstration forests are bringing home to the people 

 what forestry is and what it can do. 



All that means progress. But, on the other side of the ledger, 

 remains the distressing fact that we are still falling behind. 

 Federal forestry is still handicapped by spasmodic fits of false 

 economy that sometimes force the abandonment of important 

 research projects and prevent the conquest of forest fires. Tree 

 planting is scarcely more than a gesture. Yearly our forests are 

 decreasing in extent and productivity. Lumber prices are 

 mounting and the areas of devastation grow more vast. Amer- 

 ica has not yet found the way out. As a nation we have not yet 

 moved wholeheartedly and in concert to solve the problem of 

 our vanishing forests. 



